As the White House and news headlines celebrate Obamacare “enrollment” hitting the 7 million mark, a secretive study from the RAND Corporation reportedly suggests as few as 858,000 previously insured Americans have actually paid for their new policies.
President Barack Obama announced an “enrollment” total of 7,041,000 on Tuesday during a press conference, heralding it as proof that the Affordable Care Act is successful and here to stay.
The White House has not provided answers to key questions about the numbers, including how many enrollees were previously insured, how many Americans have actually paid their first month’s premium or how many Americans have seen their costs increase.
President Barack Obama , accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the Affordable Care Act, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
But numbers from the RAND Corporation study reportedly suggest just 23 percent of enrollees had no insurance previously. Further, the study reveals about just 53 percent of previously uninsured Americans have actually paid for their new plans.
“If those numbers hold, the actual net gain of paid policies among Americans who lacked medical insurance in the pre-Obamacare days would be just 858,298,” the Daily Mail reports.
It should be noted that the study has not been officially published and has only been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
When pressed on the lingering questions concerning the Obamacare figures on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was elusive.
White House press secretary Jay Carney, wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, begins the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“What I can tell you is that we expect there to be a good mix of people who were previously uninsured who now have insurance,” he told reporters, adding that there are also a “significant number who now have qualified for Medicaid in those states that expanded Medicaid who will have insurance who didn’t have it before.”
The White House has also yet to release any of its official figures on how many Americans have actually paid their premiums under Obamacare.